The three animals were only a few months old when police found them 15 years ago during a raid in the basement of a drug dealer’s house, according to the sanctuary. “When they were first brought to the sanctuary, Baloo, Shere Khan and Leo were injured, frightened and clinging to one another for comfort,” Hedgecoth told HuffPost.

Leo, an African lion, had been inside a small crate and suffered from an open, infected wound on his nose. Baloo, an American black bear, was found wearing a harness that he had outgrown so much, it was embedded into his flesh, which had grown over and around it. Shere Khan, a bengal tiger, was severely underweight.

Their friendship was so strong, the sanctuary even chose to keep all three in the same habitat.

Baloo, Leo and Shere Khan have been inseparable ever since.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bear-lion-tiger-friends_us_56d8c354e4b0ffe6f8e8bb11?utm_hp_ref=cute-animals

The bird was outfitted with its very own pair of itty-bitty “snowshoes,” to correct a condition known as knuckling, which causes birds to be unable to open their feet to stand or perch.

The shoes will flatten out the foot and allow the young bird’s muscles and tendons to relax and reform so that they are able to walk, land and perch naturally

Cheetahs are traded illegally in large numbers, especially to the Gulf states, where they’re prized as pets.

As cheetahs are smuggled out of Africa, a global wildlife summit tackles the exotic pet trade. On Instagram you’ll find hundreds of photos of rich, young Arabs posing with their cheetahs at home, in front of sports cars, even on boats. Habitat loss and fragmentation has pushed them nearer to extinction, but the growing pet cheetah trade is also a formidable foe.

There are fewer than 300 incidents, which may seem like a small number compared with the tens of thousands of African elephants killed every year in the ivory trade, for example, but it’s devastating for cheetahs, which are endangered.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/10/wildlife-watch-cheetah-pet-trade-restricted-cites/

Venus is a cat that has gone viral all over the internet. This Chimera cat has “two faces”. Her face is divided between black and calico in a perfectly straight line. Both her eyes are also different colors — blue and green.

The critically endangered species, Bornean orangutans, give birth about every eight years.

For the first time in 25 years, an orangutan was born at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/09/baby-orangutan-born-national-zoo/

The last living search and rescue dog, Brittany, who worked at ground zero during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers died in this Summer. Brittany was a Golden Retriever and was 16 years old. Brittany had originally joined the Cy-Fair Volunteer Fire Department’s Search and Rescue team in 2000.

In addition to her service at ground zero, she was deployed to help during Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Ivan and Hurricane Rita, among other disasters.

After her service, Brittany worked as a reading assistance dog at an elementary school.

 A a 10-month old Belgian Malinois named Rylee fell overboard into Lake Michigan during the weekend. Rylee apparently went overboard while his owner was in the engine room trying to figure out a mechanical problem with the boat and his wife was steering.  A mayday call was sent on the radio and was connected to a volunteer group that searches for lost dogs. The next morning someone spotted Rylee going into a nearby campground and he was reunited with his family.

In Lanai Hawaii there is a 25,000 square foot property full with cats. The area is covered with large huts and trees to climb on, patches of grass on which to sun themselves and all the human attention they could ever want. The sanctuary is open to the public a few hours a day, and visitors can adopt a cat if they fall in love with one. If a cat is never adopted it can live the rest of its life in the sanctuary. 

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